Developers late Tuesday evening are downloading a widely distributed beta of Apple's new iPhone 3.0 software, installing it on their handsets, and weighing in with some first impressions and screen shots, all of which follow. [Updated with video.]

The beta is available in a variety of distributions for the various multi-touch products Apple has released over the past two years, each of which weighs in around 250MB. The updated version of the iPhone SDK is much heftier, at around 2.5GB.

Generally speaking, developers are excited about the release and say the beta is stable enough for them to use as their primary iPhone OS for the time being, though the software is clearly 'not something Apple would ship' at this point.

In particular, Spotlight is said to be very responsive and functions just as you would expect having used the feature previously on a Mac. Copy & paste is also well received, but feels somewhat flaky. Developers have experienced some difficulty making selections in Safari, which may suggest a slight learning curve like that required when exploring the iPhone's touch keyboard for the first time.

Below are a series of screenshots highlighting some of the widely publicized features of iPhone 3.0 and some that have gone unmentioned, like encrypted iPhone backups, background messaging and Camera app tweaks. Two apps that have reportedly seen no changes as of yet are Weather and Clock.

Copy and paste

Copy and paste works across all applications. We've detailed the process for text, web content, and photos in a series of annotated screenshots here. Below are some additional examples, including copy and paste of MMS messages. There's also an interface in Safari for copying URLs.

Messages

One cool feature of Apple's new MMS "Messages" app is the ability to send messages in the background, which lets you type out your second message while you're waiting for the first to send. It's quite helpful when sending very large media messages:

Voice Memo interface

Apple's new Voice Memo application lets you record voice memos for yourself, which can then be trimmed and sent to friends, family, or coworkers via email of MMS.

Spotlight and Mail search

Spotlight search is accessible by flicking the iPhone's home screen to the right (as if there was a home screen to the left). In addition to serving as a global search app, it can also act as a quick application launcher.

Mail, Notes, iPod and Calendar also have their own integrated search interface (seen in the shots below, which are flanking the new home screen). If the mail search doesn't turn up any results from messages stored on your iPhone, it will move on to search messages still located on your mail server.

Key apps getting landscape mode

Among the apps gaining true landscape mode with a landscape keyboard are Mail, Stocks, Notes, and Messages:

Camera and Photos

A new version of Apple's Camera app shows you the last photo you snapped in the lower left-hand corner of the application. Meanwhile, the new Photo album app allows you to copy, delete, or share multiple photos via email.

YouTube and Settings panel

A new version of the YouTube app due in iPhone 3.0 will let you log into your account and see subscriptions, playlists, and history. Below is also a photo of the iPhone's general preference pane thrown in for good measure. There are reportedly few changes in the settings.

Parental controls & contact sharing

Below are some of the new parental controls and the dialog that allows sharing of contact cards (vCard standard) over MMS.

New screenshot interface

The version of the App Store application included with the iPhone 3.0 beta includes a slightly revised and quirky interface for viewing screenshots:

Encrypt iPhone backups and Note syncing

Below are two screenshots from the current version of iTunes showing options to encrypt iPhone backups and sync notes to handsets running iPhone OS 3.0.

is there gonna be a new way to add people to the sms list thing they used to have... like u would have to find the person. click them. go back to sms. find another person. click them, go back to sms. find another person. click them.. blah blah.. ya know? i might not be making sense, but will there b a way to just check mark the ppl we wanna text, instead of having to go back and forth on the messaging app?

This is great. I find that the iPhone already syncs just fine to multiple computers (not the same data types for each). Currently I sync email settings and photos with my laptop, and I sync iTunes and calendar with my desktop. Now I'll sync notes with the laptop as well.

( I just wish backups were optional: I don't feel the need to have BOTH machines make a backup every time I sync. So I click cancel when using the laptop.)

That's exactly what it means! Hopefully Apple will update MobileMe with a Notes tab. Also still missing is ToDo support!

All in all, a good day!

I'm sorry I don't understand your post completely, but are you running the 3.0 software and confirming no ToDo support? I was eagerly looking for mention of that support in the presentation but didn't see anything.

--Dave

Just say no to MacMall. They don't honor their promotions and won't respond to customer inquiries. There are better retailers out there.

i was hoping that, maybe under the new Spotlight homescreen, there would be a dedicated area to quickly fiddle with general settings. I always try to maximize battery life, and it would save me a lot of time if I could quickly set my Brightness, Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth. I'm no coder, but it seems easy to just tack those on under the search field!

I'm still also wishing that they can improve the at-a-glance screen. (Missed calls, text messages, etc.). Other than that, OS 3.0 seems like a good package. Turn-by-turn instructions will be neat too, I just hope that the map downloads won't be expensive.

Does that mean syncing of notes between Mail.app and iPhone's Notes app? That would be great!

I hope it means iPhone Notes and Mail.app.

However, MobileMe already has an option in Leopard for syncing "Notes" - which synchronises Stickies from your dashboard on one computer to another computer. Perhaps they'll sync dashboard stickies to your iPhone?

Quote:

Originally Posted by acslater017

I'm still also wishing that they can improve the at-a-glance screen.

I suspect that stuff like this isn't needed by developers. This release is to help developers make new apps. The glance screen, and organisation/grouping of app icons etc could still be changing.

Will the built in Contacts application support Bluetooth connectivity for sending and receiving contacts? Or will people have to use MMS and pay every time they want to send or receive contacts?

"Pay every time"? Seriously? If you are sending out contacts enough you can probably afford sending an text messages.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haggar

Can Voice Memos be sent using Bluetooth?

To what?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haggar

Can Notes be emailed from within the application or sent/received using Bluetooth?

They already can be emailed from Notes. If you mean "from within the application" to mean something different (like what they will allow for 3rd party apps) this is probably exactly how it will be in those 3rd party apps.

I just upgraded my hi-fi stereo system with a Marantz cd player, NAD preamp and a huge Rotel amp. Bought 2 insanely sweet tickets to Depeche Mode in San Fran at the Shorline Amphitheatre, and a week of camping at Greenpoint Campground in Tofino, BC.

All this, and more, and all I had to do was not subject myself to some sadistic pleasure of having an iPhone that couldn't even cut and paste.

Who's iMovie do you think Apple would promote?
Dude listening to an insanely awesome stereo, jet-setting around to check out wicked bands, surfing bitch'n waves in the most beautiful environment on the planet...
or
Some dude going "woot, I just touched my screen and zoomed in on a shitty photo while making a phone call".

While I admit that I have some "woot, I just touched my screen and zoomed in on a shitty photo while making a phone call" envy... for what Rogers is asking, my god.

You can't cut and paste life.

Little insight on me guys. I'm pretty hardcore with my tech, but at some point you need to draw a line. As much as I love to use and even sell Apple products on the side, there comes a point where you watch an Apple Keynote, showing off iLife and all the fantastic adventures of the sample photo's and movies... and think... shit... I have no content to even use that software.